The generalizability of cortical area parcellations across early childhood
The cerebral cortex consists of distinct areas that develop through intrinsic embryonic patterning and postnatal experiences. Accurate parcellation of these areas in neuroimaging studies improves statistical power and cross-study comparability. Given significant brain changes in volume, microstructure, and connectivity during early life, we hypothesized that cortical areas in 1- to 3-year-olds would differ markedly from neonates and increasingly resemble adult patterns as development progresses. Here, we parcellated the cerebral cortex into putative areas using local functional connectivity (FC) gradients in 92 toddlers at 2 years old. We demonstrate high reproducibility of these cortical areas across 1- to 3-year-olds in two independent datasets. The area boundaries in 1- to 3-year-olds were more similar to those in adults than those in neonates. While the age-specific group area parcellation better fits the underlying FC in individuals during the first 3 years, adult area parcellations still have utility in developmental studies, especially in children older than 6 years. Additionally, we provide connectivity-based community assignments of the area parcels, showing fragmented anterior and posterior components based on the strongest connectivity, yet alignment with adult systems when weaker connectivity was included.
Authors
- Barbara Warner (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9910-4461)
- Jed T. Elison (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6246-1000)
- Cynthia Rogers (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6251-8436)
- Muriah D. Wheelock (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3409-8777)
- Jiaxin Cindy Tu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1982-9890)
- Joan L. Luby (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5352-1721)
- Adam T. Eggebrecht (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6320-2676)
- Aidan Latham (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8753-2282)
- Eric Feczko (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1337-5517)
- Abraham Z. Snyder (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3379-9627)
- Lucille A. Moore (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7665-2713)
- J. Jenny Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-0597-0970)
- Trevor K. M. Day (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2911-8312)
- Damien A. Fair (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8602-393X)
- Evan M. Gordon (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2276-5237)
- Christopher D. Smyser (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4716-5190)
- Xintian Wang
- Donna Dierker (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9791-8384)
- Chad M. Sylvester (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2154-0826)
- Timothy O. Laumann
- Jeanette K. Kenley (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9765-8719)
- Alyssa K. Labonte (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9660-9280)
- Omid Kardan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4187-5228)
- Chloe M. Sobolewski
- Wei Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6843-1980)
- Yu Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8344-1586)
- Michael J. Myers (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8643-3621)
- Deanna M. Barch
Institutions
- University of Minnesota (US)
- Georgetown University (US)
- Virginia Commonwealth University (US)
- Washington University in St. Louis (US)
- University of Michigan (US)
- University of Chicago (US)
- Mallinckrodt (United States) (US)
- The White House (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Cerebral Cortex
- Published
- 2025-05-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhaf116
- Citations
- 5
- Primary Topic
- Functional Brain Connectivity Studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 7.16